The Finite Element Model (FEM) is a tool useful for determining the integrity of a given mechanical structure. For example, aircraft designers have long used finite element models to predict how internal and external stresses will manifest themselves throughout each portion of a particular wing design during various flight maneuvers.
While FEMs play an important part in the design and testing of aircraft, automobiles, buildings and hundreds of other structures, the computer-based tools available performing finite state analysis have a long history of unresolved shortcomings. For instance, a designer using known FEM tools generally requires an excessive amount of time to create an appropriate FEM for even a relatively simple structure. Further, once such a FEM is created, it may be rendered useless should the designer wish to make anything but the most modest changes to the structure's design. Accordingly, new methods and systems related to finite element modeling are desirable.